Back for day two of Becky's wrap up, but I do think after the holiday, I may come back with other people's roundups as well.
But right now, you can follow PW's libraries reporter who has Day 1 and 2 reports up now. But if you use the link I provided for all their library news, you can follow more as it is published.
I am going to address the opening and closing sessions in a moment, but first, I want to begin with some o fly observations from the Exhibit Floor.
- The book stages were not a factor this year. At least to me. Look, they were there but unlike last year, I did not hear them or see people flocking to them. People were talking about the stages last year. And I am not surprised because a few months before ALA I was talking with the publishers who had me do moderating on this stages and all of them said they had nothing there this year. I thought they were just trying to get rid of me, but then I looked at the schedules and honestly, they were mostly publishers doing buzzes or stuff for YS librarians. So maybe your experience is different but I 100% did not factor them into my plans this year, and again, the last few years, I was at those stages more than ever.
- I did not think there were as many big name authors there this year-- at least for adults. Don't get me wrong, there were huge people like John Scalzi and Tananarive Due, but the number of big name authors was down. But again, librarian, my experience may not be anything more than my experience. So I started to ask a variety of people who are bringing the authors in (leaving names and affiliations out but these are top people), and they told me that when the conference people reached out for names of authors, the ones that were chosen to appear were surprising to them. And it seems like there were few options for the people hosting the author panels via United For Libraries and LibraryReads as well. Again, at least for the adult side. The number of kid lit and teen authors was much higher.
- I was heartened to see that the comics and graphic novelists authors were higher and more on point this year though. That is a win.
- And the most noticeable but least surprising thing I learned on the exhibit floor was the number of vendors and even publishers who are all flocking to fill the B&T gap. Ingram could not step in and do everything-- obviously. B&T, for all of their issues, was a stalwart for libraries for delivering the highest number of processed books, uniquely tailored to your libraries call number and sticker placement quirks as well as the best provider of standing order authors. They developed these services over decades. What I saw was interesting. First publishers like PRH are trying to fill the ordering and inventory gaps by now allowing libraries to order directly from them with a cart system that we are used to. But second, and more interesting, I saw a variety of vendors offering parts of what B&T offered, no one offering everything, but pieces. For example, Amazon now will send your books to you from their new library ordering portal with mylar covers. They also are going to roll out a standing author program and there are people talking about Amazon leveraging their customer data to help libraries understand what books are most popular in their zip codes. Follett is also ramping up their services for public libraries. I have worked with Follett on ordering and cataloging through their school library linked systems for years as I have volunteered at the school library, but they are now saying they will be able to offer processed books and catalog records that will upload into systems that are not theirs. I also ran into many former B&T employees who are at many of the vendors and are sharing their knowledge with their new companies. My overall assessment of everything I saw (and I have only shared a few things), all of these promises and new services are going to take a few years to ramp up. In the meantime, we are all going to continue to struggle to get books on the shelf. Talking to librarians from all over the country, most are making due by hiring a few new people to process and teaching library associates how to do copy cataloging and processing as a job ON TOP of their other duties to make due.
Again, those are my brief overview thoughts from the exhibit floor, but now I want to talk about the opening and closing sessions.
PW has a longer report of the opening session but I want to talk about one small part, but a part that ruined the entire session and quite honestly, clouded my entire experience at ALA, the appearance of the Sharjah Book Authority CEO Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri. This is all PW said about that, and it was buried in a paragraph with others:
At the welcome ceremony, speakers included Illinois Library Association president Carolyn Ciesla, Chicago Public Library commissioner Chris Brown, and Sharjah Book Authority CEO Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, who reminded the assembly that “knowledge should move freely across borders.” Dan Montgomery, wrapping up his first year as ALA executive director, praised Helmick and other volunteer leaders for their dedicated efforts, “not made any easier by the times we’re in.”
First, our president, a nonbinary person giggled with excitement as they were introducing this man without telling us who it was at first. And then he came out. Here is what I said on Bluesky:
Not sure why ALA gave the mic and opening session stage to the librarian from UAE, a country that does not have intellectual freedom. I will make sure someone in charge has to answer this question.
To say I was incensed at him walking on the stage under the pretense that he was there to celebrate the libraries' 100th anniversary and to advertise that they were hosting the International Book Fair, would be an understatement. This is a place where being gay and especially being nonbinary like the person introducing this man is ILLEGAL. This is a place (UAE) where freedom of the press and intellectual freedom are squashed by rule of law. Freedom House listing for UAE gives them a score of 18/100 for Freedom. 18 out of 100! I am not exaggerating.
Why are we, the ALA giving precious time on the microphone to a man who got up there and praised his government, a government that is suppressing free speech. A government who are actively queer people existing. WHAT ARE WE DOING? These are people related to those who are doing the same thing here, in our country, the people the ALA and all of us have been exhaustively fighting for years. People who some library workers have lost their jobs standing up to.
I have no problem mentioning them with the many, many others in the library world who are celebrating milestones this year-- and there are a lot. I have no problem with him being on the welcome slide listing all of the international librarians that were attending. And I have no problem with them having a booth for the International Book Fair because that is an event that library people might want to know about.
BUT to give this man a chance to speak at the mic, and give no one else that space, that is a choice I cannot get behind. It is a slap in the face to every one of us who is fighting for intellectual freedom every single day.
Because I am me, I stopped paying attention to anything else after this and spent most of my night reaching out to others involved in ALA decision making and those officially working to protect intellectual freedom. Surprise, surprise (sarcasm) not a single one had any idea who okayed him to speak. And for a while many of these people were also surprised he got mic time. And then, but the next day, these same people (and there were a few) got back to me with sanitized responses that claimed things like:
- He was speaking because it was a 100th anniversary for them and they are hosting the International Book Fair with ALA is a partner with.
- My responses-- they have a booth, he doesn't;t need the mic too; you put a bunch of anniversaries on the screen but only he talked, many of which were major ALA specific initiatives.
- They want to highlight the huge international support of ALA's 150th and he spoke for all International attendees
- Again, they listed at least 4 major international attendees and any one of them could have spoken instead.
- While we might not agree with his country's politics, we cannot blame him for that.
- Okay this one made me mad because that is not the point. He can do whatever he wants and has to follow the rules of his country, that is his choice. BUT WHAT ABOUT OUR CHOICE? We actually have the freedom to make a choice to NOT support those who suppress intellectual freedom.
I need to be clear here-- asking someone to speak at the ALA Opening Session, giving them the mic, that is a choice. Not allowing someone to speak is also a choice. ALA made a choice that is 100% counter to everything we claim to believe in. I will not forget this. I will not stop talking about this to all of you and ALA people. And I will not stay silent.
As you can imagine, I heard nothing back after I countered these arguments. My friend Kelly Jensen told me all you can do is challenge them but in the end you will not get a response and also she said no one will admit who invited him. That is what I am finding out. I also found out along my journey of talking to people over the conference, that folks I thought were involved in major planning committees were relieved of their duties a few months ago. Hmmmmmm
Look, I have no proof but everyone knows ALA's finances are a mess. I am guessing a pay out from the UAE to ALA was involved. And look, if you are going to basically take a bribe-- because that is what it is when you go against everything you "believe in" and are fighting for in exchange for money. Let us talk in front of everyone with your blessing and endorsement and stay quiet because we paid you. Again, no proof but why else will no one go on the record to explain why he got the mic.
As you can tell, I am still upset about all of this, and quite honestly, it clouded my experience at the closing session which was added after the closing speaker cancelled:
As the United States celebrates 250 years of democracy, ALA leadership – current President Sam Helmick, President Elect Maria McCauley, Director of the Office of Intellectual Freedom Sarah Lamdan, and Executive Director Dan Montgomery – will discuss the issues at the heart of the profession: librarians as vanguards of intellectual freedom, information literacy and civic engagement, and libraries as welcoming spaces that provide a sense of community and belonging for patrons.
I will start my comments here by saying Sarah Lamdan is 100% better than her predecessor who thankfully retired. I will not say her name but I will say we had some clashes. All she did was say no when challenged to actually fight for our intellectual freedom. Lamdan is doing much better. One of the best ways to see that, as soon as the former head of OIF retired, magically Kelly Jensen (the leading journalist fighting for our intellectual freedom) was included in the ALA's fight against censorship. Before the conference began, I was hopeful about this conversation but as you can imagine, after that Opening Session experience, I was less so. Well I was not disappointed in my lowered expectations. This conversation had NO TEETH. Instead of interrogating the state of censorship in America, instead of rallying us to fight with renewed energy, instead of giving us things we can do to work together both in our communities and across the country, instead, they gave us a conversation about JOY?!?!?
They wanted us to joyfully rally our comunities about all the great things libraries do. She wanted if to focus on our joy of serving those patrons. They wanted us to look at joy as an act of resistance.
This last one mad me even more mad, but I was too tired to put that on socials. We need actual resistance, I don't care if this attack on all of us is taking an emotional toll on us. It is not taking an emotional toll on enough of us. Too many library workers say things to me like-- well that is their problem or my community is fine. People, it is not. I am on the ILA's Intellectual Freedom committee-- in a state where book banning is technically illegal-- I can tell you our meetings are filled with libraries needing help (school and public) as their freedoms are being eroded.
Joy is not the resistance we need. The other side of this debate has all the time and money and federal political support to keep pudding away at our freedoms. They ar not going to stop. And with power and money int heir corner, JOY will never be enough. In fact, this argument by ALA leadership that we should take a break, deal with our emotional health, and not do anything other than be joyful is a kick in the gut to those of us engaged in this fight. What we need from ALA is a clearer, stronger, and quite honestly, more anger fueled game plan to really fight back. What we got instead was some touchy feely nonsense.
Lamdan also said we should lean on others if we need it, but again, too many library workers are ignoring the problems either because they think they are not relevant to them or because they hide hoping people don't go after them. But first, everyone is in this fight whether we want to be or not. And second, ignoring the issue is what got us in so deep to begin with. How can we lean on others when you are not rallying them to help us.
Look, I clearly had a lot of thoughts about ALA's messaging. And they are very critical. But I went to this conference knowing I might feel this way. I went as a member who writes for ALA's publishing division. And I went and am a member because I truly believe if you want to fight to make something better you do not abstain. No. Instead you stay and become a thorn in their sides. You fight from within. I have been doing that for years and I will continue. And I do this with the knowledge that I have colleagues on the inside who must stay silent publicly but appreciate that I can fight for them.
I promise to all of you, I will keep fighting and I will keep being a member. They are not going to be able to get rid of me that easily. I know many of them read this blog because it gets back to me through other channels. So to those in charge, I say-- If you thought I was fighting before, you haven't seen anything yet.
